Tom Hooper's Les Miserables: The many faces of Fantine

As Anne Hathaway signs on to play Fantine in Tom Hooper's film adaptation of Les
Miserables we look at the character's many incarnations and
interpretations.

Anne HathawayPhoto: REX FEATURES

3:24PM BST 19 Oct 2011

Victor Hugo's Fantine (1862) Victor Hugo devotes the entire first part of his 1862 novel to the character of Fantine. He introduces her as: "one of those beings which are brought forth from the heart of the people" and initially describes her as "joy itself".

Fantine's story was originally imagined as a tragedy. She is abandoned, first by her lover Félix Tholomyès and then by society itself. She falls into prostitution in order to support her young daughter, and is depicted as one who "has become marble in becoming corrupted".

Despite her role as a prostitute, Hugo focuses upon Fantine largely as an innocent victim of society's neglect of the poor, which is one of the most prevailing themes of his novel.

Florelle's Fantine (1934) The Raymond Bernard film is considered by many to be the greatest film adaptation of Hugo's novel. Its' portrayal of Fantine played by the French actress Florelle (who was born only thirty years after Hugo's novel) remains largely faithful to the novel.

Fantine's love affair with Tholomyès, however, is expanded in Bernard's film, in order to increase empathy for her abandonment and enforcing the image of Fantine as a self-sacrificing mother.

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Fantine as 'Elisa' (1995) Claude Leloach's 1995 film is a bold re-imagining of Victor Hugo's novel. It sets the tale during WWII, focusing upon a poor and illiterate French man, Henri Fortin, who sees his life paralleling that of Les Miserables. Fantine is reborn as Elisa Ziman, a young ballerina who falls in love with a Jewish journalist.

She is arrested by the Nazis and separated from her husband and young daughter. Forced to 'entertain' the German troops, she refuses and is sent to a concentration camp. Unlike Fantine, she never succumbs to degradation. Also unlike Fantine, she survives, and lives to be reunited with her daughter and husband.

The Musical Fantine (1985-) Numerous leading stage actresses from Patti LePone to Ruthie Henshall have taken on the leading role of Fantine. The musical has become for many the definitive version of Les Miserables and thus of Fantine.

She is portrayed as an innocent casualty of society and her descent into prostitution (set to the song Lovely Ladies) sees her as a victim of coercion and desperation. Her fateful encounter with Tholomyès is explained in the iconic song I Dreamed a Dream, which romanticises Fantine’s past and sets the tone of tragedy that surrounds her. Unlike in the novel, Fantine dies at peace and returns as a ghost in the musical’s final scene to escort Jean Valjean to heaven.

Uma Thurman's Fantine (1998) Billie August’s 1998 film adaptation starred Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush. Thurman took on the role of Fantine whose presence is more fleeting than in the novel yet her connection to Valjean is greatly expanded into a potential love affair. Thurman’s Fantine is effective and her illness and destitution highlighted despite the brevity of her role.